The flood of news stories from a country as large, diverse and strange as the Russian Federation often appears to be is far too large for anyone to keep up with. But there needs to be a way to mark those which can’t be discussed in detail but which are too indicative of broader developments to ignore.

Consequently, Windows on Eurasia each week presents a selection of these other and typically neglected stories at the end of each week. This is the 111th such compilation, and it is again a double issue with 26 from Russia and 13 from Russia’s neighbors. Even then, it is far from complete, but perhaps one or more of these stories will prove of broader interest.

1. One Place Putin Won’t Be: Right on the Money

The Russian Central Bank says that it will not put a picture of Vladimir Putin on Russian currency (newsland.com), but he is being featured ever more often in popular poetry (republic.ru).

Meanwhile, Putin made history by becoming the first Russian leader to visit an assembly of the Russian Orthodox Church (newsland.com).

He came out again as a defender of family values and called on Russians to prepare for war, although he did not specify just who Russia’s enemy in such a conflict would be (politsovet.ru and forum-msk.org).

Once again the Moscow media was filled with stories about Putin’s supposed “secret” daughter (ej.ru and newsland.com). And Putin shocked some by putting on shoes with enormously high heels so that he would appear almost as tall as Alyaksandr Lukashenka (by24.org).

2. Russian Business Leaders Distancing Themselves from Putin Because of Sanctions Threat

The threat that Russian business leaders will be targeted by American sanctions early next year has caused many of them to put as much distance as they can between themselves and the Russian president (republic.ru), even though the Kremlin is now allowing Russian firms to mislead buyers by misidentifying transfer companies to hide their role and thus escape existing sanctions (apn.ru).

The US Congress has stripped RT journalists of their accreditation to cover the American legislature, and in response, deputies at both the all-Russian and local levels are seeking to do the same with US journalists in Russia (snob.ru, politsovet.ru and kasparov.ru).

Meanwhile, in another sign of worsening relations between Russia and the US, officials in the Russian Far East are refusing to meet with the new American ambassador (rbc.ru).

3. Russians Urged to Remember What Putin has Promised and Then Not Done

Opponents of the Kremlin leader say that Russians should remember all the things that Vladimir Putin has promised to do but not in fact done when they go to vote, something that those who still support him have managed to avoid doing (censoru.net).

Meanwhile, Moscow has cut the number of outside observers it will allow for the March vote (newsland.com) and promoted regional referenda and regional media coverage to enhance participation (newsland.com and fedpress.ru),

Kseniya Sobchak has briefly suggested she may withdraw from the race (newsland.com),

Aleksey Navalny’s campaign has been accused of lobbying for more anti-Russian sanctions (newsland.com),

Russian courts have forced Navalny to return some of the contributions he has received (newsland.com), even as Navalny has picked up more advocates for the idea that he should be allowed to take part in the race (newsland.com) and as Boris Titov has declared his candidacy (newsland.com).

4. 80 Percent of United Russia Party Staff Reportedly to Be Purged

Sources close to the ruling party say that the Kremlin plans to purge up to 80 percent of all party workers, the first mass purge of that organization and a warning sign about the future (ura.news).

Constitutional Court head Valery Zorkin says that Russia is turning into a society in which a small elite manipulates everyone else (newsland.com).

5. Ruble Predicted to Collapse by Early 2018

Economists say that the Russian economy is not going to grow by two percent this year despite government claims (ng.ru).

Seven Russian regions now have debt loads greater than their annual incomes (kasparov.ru).

And a new study finds that relations between corporations and investors in Russia are more fraught than in most countries (iq.hse.ru).

6. Russian Suffering Increased by Rising Inflation

Many Russians now can’t afford to buy food, housing and medicine all at the same time, not only because of reduced incomes (despite the same or even more hours of work) but because prices are rising far higher than the government says. Real inflation this year for basic needs is running at 10 to 12 percent, experts say (newsland.com, regnum.ru and rosbalt.ru).

And stories continue to come in of people offering to sell precious things in order to eat: One Russian this week offered to sell or exchange his World War II medals to get enough money to smoke (newsland.com).

7. Putin’s Demographic Proposals Savaged as Ineffective

Experts say that Vladimir Putin’s proposal to provide subsidies to Russian women who have a first child won’t help solve Russia’s demographic problems (snob.ru and svpressa.ru). Instead, they say, the government must massively invest in health care, something it isn’t doing, and subsidize third and fourth children in order to raise the fertility rate to about 2.1 (kasparov.ru, echo.msk.ru and newsland.com).

Indeed, this week there has been a public outcry against the closing of birthing facilities in ten Moscow districts, something that will push infant and maternal mortality up, exactly the reverse of what Putin says he wants (openrussia.org).

9. Which is Better — Standing in Line for Sausage in Soviet Times or for Doctors Now?

Russians are asking whether they have made real gains since Soviet times. Then, they had to stand in line for basic foodstuffs but now thanks to Putin’s optimization plan they have to stand in line when they are sick to see a doctor (newsland.com), and if they have cancer, they may find treatments both expensive and useless (versia.ru).

As has always been true, Russian regions have far higher rates of alcohol consumption than Muslim ones (regnum.ru), and in many of them, illegal vodka continues to be sold under the table (kp.ru).

And Russia now ranks third in the world in terms of new HIV cases, with heterosexual sex having become the main channel of infection and 52 regions reporting that they have no anti-HIV medicines at all (newsru.com, snob.ru, snob.ru and ura.news).

10. As with Chernobyl, Europeans Point to Radiation Leak in Russia Before Moscow Does

Western European governments have identified a radiation leak in the Urals before the central Russian government has acknowledged any problem, a sad recapitulation of what happened at the time of the Chernobyl nuclear accident (freeural.org, newsland.com and kasparov.ru).

Given Putin’s language policies and his regional amalgamation plans, ever more non-Russians say that the Kremlin leader wants to disband all non-Russian republics, something many ethnic Russians favor but that non-Russians fear (apn-spb.ru). But at least one republic has people who say that their nation will long outlive Putin (idelreal.org).

In other nationality news this week:

Moscow completed the liquidation of the All-Russian Azerbaijani Congress (nazaccent.ru),

And Ramzan Kadyrov talked about attacks on him and his desire to eventually retire (lenta.ru and znak.com).

12. Putin’s Language Policies Unwittingly Create Two Russian Language

Putin’s new pro-Russian language policies have unwittingly created two distinct Russian languages in the schools of the non-Russian republics: Russian as a state language for those for whom it isn’t native and as a native language for those for whom it is (afterempire.info).

Russian and Tatar officials are split on what is going on in schools and society there with Russian ones talking about the failure of schools to teach enough Russian and the Tatars talking about the need for young people to speak more Tatar (echo.msk.ru, nazaccent.ru, business-gazeta.ru and interfax-religion.ru).

13. Putin Helping to Form Siberian Nation, Some There Say

Just as Putin’s attack on Ukraine has helped unify Ukrainians, so his failure to help Russians east of the Urals is having the effect of leading more people there to re-identify as Siberians and even as a distinct Siberian nation (crusmonitor.om).

That is true in other regions as well, but some Moscow commentators dismiss the possibility that regional identities are even possible within the Russian nation, an attitude that may further promote them (forum-msk.org).

One regional movement, that of Ingriya, has announced that its preferred borders are those of Novgorod before the Muscovites came (afterempire.info), and many in the regions say they were better off under the Mongol Horde than they are under Moscow (afterempire.info).

14. Suggestion Imperial Family Was Killed as a Ritual Murder Divides Russians

The Moscow Patriarchate’s suggestion that there is much evidence that Nicholas II and his family were killed as part of a ritual murder has attracted government investigators but much anger among some Orthodox and many Jews and opposition politicians (portal-credo.ru, politsovet.ru, ng.ru, rusk.ru and portal-credo.ru).

So much attention was lavished on this issue that many other steps the Moscow Patriarchate took this week were ignored, but they merit recording at least:

The Russian Orthodox Church banned marriages of gays, transsexuals and heretics (regnum.ru),

It prohibited anyone from being married more than three times (charter97.org),

It also provided new data on the size of the church: the Moscow patriarchate now has 303 bishoprics, ten more than last year and 144 more than when Kirill became patriarch, and 36,000 parishes (rusk.ru).

The Patriarchate also announced that the government is providing it with more subsidies (politsovet.ru). And there was a telephone bomb threat near where Patriarch Kirill was (kasparov.ru).

Meanwhile, one anti-Muslim commentator said that the super-MSD Council of Muftis of Russia is near collapse (ruskline.ru).

15. ‘Soon Everyone in Russia Will Be a Foreign Agent, Except Putin, Of Course’

Opposition politician Dmitry Gudkov says that the sobriquet ‘foreign agent’ is being tossed around to casually that soon almost all Russians, except Putin, may be labelled as such (msk.ru).

Focusing on the need to restrict using internet chats within computer games (profile.ru).

Meanwhile one analyst pointed out what should have been obvious: the purpose of Kremlin propaganda is to get people to think that what the powers that be want is their own idea (kasparov.ru).

16. Telephone Bomb Threats, Evacuations Continue Unabated

Despite the absence of central media coverage, both bomb threats and the evacuations of buildings they force continue unabated around Russia and in Moscow itself (newsru.com and kasparov.ru).

Russia now is ranked in the top ten countries in the world in terms of terrorist threats (lenta.ru), and Russians say they are more frightened of conflicts now than in the past (nazaccent.ru), at least in part because of the Ukrainian spy mania the authorities appear to be promoting (newsland.com and kasparov.ru).

More worrisome, a trainee at the military-space academy has been accused of plotting to carry out a terrorist action (novayagazeta.ru).

17. Russian Military Faces Serious Problems Because of Lack of Decent Roads

Vladislav Surkov says that Russians are the world’s most effective peacekeepers (newsland.com),

A Russian senator says Moscow is prepared to create a military base in Sudan (newsland.com),

New draftees are required to denounce their parents as extremists in Voronezh (kasparov.ru),

And Ramzan Kadyrov says there are more than 100 Russians in Baghdad jails (snob.ru).

18. Doping Scandal Continues to Grow

As ever more evidence of a doping program organized by the Russian government has surfaced, Russian officials remain in denial and attack mode, claiming simultaneously that the charges are part of an effort by the West to make Russia into a member of “the axis of evil” (versia.ru) and that the information about them is totally false (novayagazeta.ru, meduza.io, kasparov.ru and graniru.org).

And in advance of the IOC decision on banning Russia from the Olympics, Moscow has threatened to cost the organization money by not broadcasting the competition, even as some in the Russian capital have insisted that Russia would benefit by being kept out of the games (themoscowtimes.com, iarex.ru and newsland.com).

19. Russia’s Hosting of World Cup Next Year Becomes Ever More Problematic

Now that the Olympics is out of reach, Russia’s hosting of the 2018 World Cup has become more problematic as well:

The United Nations has weighed in against Russian restrictions on HIV-infected participants (kommersant.ru).

Gay activists have put out guidance on how LGBTs will have to behave if they want to avoid problems in Russian venue cities (babr24.com).

The doping scandal that has hit other parts of Russian sports is spreading to football as well (newsland.com and regnum.ru).

Moscow insists it is clean and ready for the competition (regnum.ru), but some are worried that racism by Russian fans could lead to forfeited matches (themoscowtimes.com and meduza.io).

Meanwhile, a debate has broken out as to whether the competition will bring a profit. Most experts say Moscow may benefit briefly but will lose over time; other venue cities will lose from the outset from this 13 billion US dollar effort (ng.ru, themoscowtimes.com, regnum.ru and rbc.ru).

As ever more Russian athletes are stripped of their medals from the Sochi Games, that Putin achievement is turning to dust with Russia predicted to fall to anywhere between third and fifth place in the total national medal count (kasparov.ru, newsland.com and newsland.com).

Talgat Tajuddin, who sometimes styles himself as the Supreme Mufti of Holy Russia, says that orange revolutions and the end of the world have this in common – their color (business-gazeta.ru).

23. Ayn Rand Hated Not Only Communism but Russians Too

Ayn Rand, the novelist and philosopher of libertarianism, hated both communism and the Russians because of her early experience in fleeing the Bolsheviks, a new study says (ttolk.ru).

24. War and Talk of War Allows Russians to Escape from Memories, Conscience, Belkovsky Says

One of the reasons Vladimir Putin keeps Russia on a war footing is that it helps him ensure that Russians can escape from their memories and their consciences which otherwise might cause them to revolt against him, Moscow commentator Stanislav Belkovsky says (msk.ru).

25. When Moscow Runs Out of Carrots, Russians in the Regions will Revolt

Analysts from Russia’s regions say that their populations are not unlike people elsewhere and that when Moscow finally runs out of carrots, physical and psychological, the Russian people will revolt against it (fedpress.ru).

26. Russia’s Biggest Problem: Moscow Cares More about Territory than about Russians

Moscow analysts say that Russia’s problems throughout history reflect its rulers’ desire to acquire territory even if the needs of the people have to be ignored or sacrificed (newsland.com).

And 13 more from countries in Russia’s neighborhood:

1. Four Out of Five Ukrainians Say Putin is an Enemy of Their Country

With new studies showing that the Kremlin leader has inflicted more than 15 billion US dollars in damages to Ukraine not to mention deaths and the displacement of populations, 82 percent of Ukrainians say that Vladimir Putin is the enemy of their country (stoletie.ru and twitter.com/lvivSF).

2. Ever More Russians Fleeing Moscow’s Oppression for Ukraine

Almost every day another Russian flees his country for Ukraine, a culturally similar but far freer place than his own and a trend that represents perhaps the biggest threat to the future of Putin’s regime (dsnews.ua and sobkorr.ru).

3. Donbas Occupiers Show Their True Russian Colors

The pro-Moscow forces have now put up Russian flags on their “government” buildings thus revealing their true colors however much Moscow and some in the West still deny that fact (novayagazeta.ru).

While it does not get the attention it did earlier, Russian oppression of the Crimean Tatars on the occupied Ukrainian peninsula is not only intensifying but claiming more victims, including an 82-year-old woman who died after questioning (newsland.com and novayagazeta.ru).

7. Ukrainian President Calls on Moscow to Express Remorse about Holodomor

President Petro Poroshenko says that Moscow should express remorse for Stalin’s Holodomor (msk.ru).

8. Lithuania Adopts a Magnitsky Law Against Russia

Lithuania has become the latest country to adopt a version of the US Magnitsky Law to punish those responsible for his death (charter97.org).

9. Details of Future Tallinn-Helsinki Tunnel Presented

Officials in Estonia and Finland have provided new details about the construction of a rail and highway tunnel between the two countries sometime in the coming decades (regnum.ru).

10. Kazakhstan Muslim Leaders Seek to Define a National Version of Islam

The leaders of Kazakhstan’s Muslim community are developing what they say will be a uniquely Kazakh version of Islam, one shorn of inappropriate foreign borrowings and reflecting the traditions of that nation alone (kazislam.kz).

11. Terror in Turkmenistan Said Now an Everyday Thing

The government in Ashgabat is so repressive that those few people who can study it say it has thoroughly penetrated all aspects of life there (fergananews.com).

12. Kyrgyz Elections Make Possible First Normal Transfer of Power in Central Asia

The just-completed presidential elections in Kyrgyzstan mean that country is the first in Central Asia to have a peaceful transfer of power from one living president to his successor, a remarkable achievement in a region where that hasn’t happened before (forum-msk.org).

13. Uzbek TV Airs Criticism of Tashkent’s Security Service for First Time

Yet another breakthrough under the new Uzbekistan president is that the media appears to be getting freer and can now criticize some government institutions, including the formerly sacrosanct national security agency (fergananews.com).

And in another development reflecting the changes that are coming to post-Karimov Uzbekistan, some hotels there are placing Korans, Bibles and Torahs in all guest rooms (kazislam.kz).

Edited by: A.N.

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About the Source

Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. He has served as director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn, and a senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia. Earlier he has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Euromaidan Press republishes the work of Paul Goble with permission from his blog Windows on Eurasia.

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